Did
you ever had a relationship where one day, you just fell out of love? When all
you wanted was to break off. Cleanly. No lingering attachments. Possibly even
forgetting you've ever had a relationship - like an annulment except you've
never been married. I'm pretty sure majority could relate to that scenario. It
could be any relationship: between friends, lovers, even families. Often, it
takes all we have to sustain that dying relationship until, that is, we break from
the pressures. The relationship didn’t go into a comatose, it wasn't even
injured severely. Our pains come from holding on for so long, letting it linger
when it already died the instant the thought implanted itself.
I couldn't count the times I've
declared death only to revoke it a day or two thereafter. I couldn't count how
many times I've told myself it wasn't worth an ugly aftermath. Dating deadlines
had always been a dangerous game. True, it has always been an exciting and
thrilling relationship. One that motivates you to finish work. One that fuels
inspiration into adding a bit of depth in the things that you do. Often its one
where it leaves proof of how much of a genius you are to be able to conjure so
much in a span of so little time. Dating deadlines is a kind of relationship
which brings out the best in people.
Considering these benefits, you
wouldn't really mind not breaking off. Surely, a lot of good things would come
out of continuing the relationship. Eventually, as we get used to constant hum
of rushed activities, it becomes ingrained in our system. Until every trigger
that would tell us that deadline is near, we'll wait for it. Wait until it
comes and we let it linger before sending it away. We do it every single time
until we form a habit of doing it. A habit, given in time, will be part of our
culture and daily traditions.
Habits aren't things we just do
on a whim. These are developed over time. Habits are what defines us: how we
act, how we think, how we shape our futures, as well as how we interact with
others. In a world where everything seems to be growing, habits have its own
means of evolving. And like all things evolutionary, the more you employ its
usage the faster its rate of changes. Simple habits aren't as affecting, more so
if it started small. Basic. Like white lies. Harmless even. But as it eats up
through a well-established system, it'll begin to implant dangerous ideas that
could be potentially harmful to oneself - others even.
We might think that these habits
haven't really killed anyone. No, not really. Not directly. Imagine, missing
deadlines in school; keeping deadlines; letting it stay longer than you’d
intended. What's the harm in that? You reap passable grades close to failing.
Worse, if you actually fail. But what's the harm in it? You can take the
subject the next time and be a bit wiser. We could stay in college for so long,
repeating and repeating until we get the hang of our teacher's habits. But what
comes after? What happens when we take on jobs dealing with deadlines? We can't
take extensions. Reasons reformed to excuses. We have little opportunities to
repeat and replay. We lose our jobs - we enter another cycle of finding and
losing jobs foreshadowed by deadlines. What if it involves others, isn't that
what makes things a threat? Say, you deal with payrolls and people are counting
on you to meet ends on a timely manner. It becomes bigger - their life is
technically on your hands. What's the harm in cradling a dangerous habit? It
becomes potentially malicious as we make it into a habit. As habits are part of
ourselves, our concepts, ideals, belief - it all gets distorted with the
rationale behind that relationship. It's funny how a harmless deadline could do
so much to a person. At the end of the day, the things that we do in excess
must be reformed even if we have to change a lot of things within ourselves.
"Old habits die hard," once you've started doing something
repeatedly it'll be hard to stop. It's like its programmed into our brains.
Like a regular relationship where togetherness is the key to make it last. But
too much togetherness would also mean massive changes. Like autopilot.
Unconscious acts. Involuntary movements. Once something had been deeply rooted,
it'll be hard to take out. Even if it started with something small. And each
remembrance would take us back to where it all began.
No comments:
Post a Comment